PH, Turkey renew academic partnership
THE Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has renewed its ties with the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) of Turkey to foster academic partnerships between Philippine and Turkish universities.
The renewal of ties came after CHEd Chairman Prospero de Vera 3rd and CoHE President Erol Özvar met on the sidelines of the Eurasia Higher Education Summit in Istanbul last week to identify new areas of collaboration after the completion of the five-year memorandum of agreement signed in 2018 between the two ministries.
Also attending the meeting were Philippine Ambassador to Turkey Henry Bensurto Jr., Mariano Marcos State University President Shirley Agrupis, Iloilo Science and Technological University President Gabriel Salistre, Caraga State University President Rolyn Daguil, Mindanao State University-Naawan, Misamis Oriental Chancellor Elnor Roa, and officials of the University of Luzon and Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation.
De Vera said the meeting aimed to broaden the scope of cooperation to include Science and Technology and engineering courses aside from fisheries and marine sciences, which was first agreed upon in 2019.
In 2022, the MSU-Naawan campus and other fisheries schools in the country collaborated with Turkish schools to forge collaborations, such as sending five graduate students to Kastamonu University and Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, panel membership of Turkish faculty members to theses and dissertations of graduate students and the membership of an MSU Naawan faculty member to the official journal of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University.
“While we continue to push for partnerships in fisheries, it is now possible to expand by bringing together universities with excellent Science, Technology, and Engineering programs from both countries. We recognize Turkiye’s (Turkey’s) world-class quality of education, especially in engineering and technology,” de Vera said.
The two parties also discussed the possibility of collaboration in university research partnerships in the defense industry by combining education, research and development, and industrial partnerships.
Both parties have expressed their commitment by signing a new memorandum of agreement (MoA) to formalize the agreed-upon areas of cooperation.
Aside from the MoA, a technical working group will be created to be led by the Philippine ambassador in Turkey, the CoHE and representatives of the six Philippine universities in attendance to create a work plan to implement projects in the identified areas of cooperation.
De Vera also invited Ozvar to the country to highlight the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Turkey, which will be celebrated through academic exchanges between universities and institutions from both countries.